Rough, Tough Cloudy Cat

Early every winter morning Cloudy
Cat arrives to sit on the plant bench outside the window. He is patient. He
knows I will fill the dishes in the house and open the cat door. He leaps in.

I sweep up the debris from the firewood
littering the floor while Cloudy eats. He gets done first. And panics. The cat
door is closed. He begins meowing, demanding to be let out.

Woe to any other cat who needs to go out or come in. Cloudy is there at the door any time it opens impatiently waiting for me to go to the barn.

Cloudy Cat is waiting at the barn door for me to get done carrying water and other assorted tasks and let him inside. As soon as he gets inside, milk should appear in his bowl. He never seems to catch on that I have to milk a goat first.

After starting the fire and eating
breakfast, I head to the barn. Cloudy Cat leads the way, tail up, triumphant.
His insistence has paid off. (Never mind that I go through the same routine
every morning and always go to the barn to milk.)

Now comes show off time. Roll on the ground to trip walkers. Race by and up a tree. Bat a snowball or rock or bit of wood around. Keep checking to be sure of being noticed.

Snow may be cold, but Cloudy Cat doesn’t mind. He throws himself on it and rolls over expecting me to stop and pet him. The fact that I have a bucket in each hand is my problem, not his.

The pay off is milk in a bowl still
warm from the goat eating on the milkstand.

Cloudy Cat does catch mice in the
barn. He must as he stays fat and sleek. I have seen him catch a few.

Mostly I see Cloudy showing off his technique. He crouches poised on a feed barrel top waiting for any mouse stupid enough to come out while the goats and I are tromping around. Amazingly, a few do.

Cloudy Cat is a typical cat. Naps are an essential part of his day. A sun-warmed bale of hay makes a good place to snooze.

When the weather permits, Cloudy
enjoys shadowing me on a walk down the road and back. In bad weather he curls
up in the hay or on a goat blanket to sleep. He insists on staying in the barn
and has ever since he arrived here five or six years ago.

Late afternoons Cloudy is back at
the house to eat dinner. He again retreats outside and waits. It is time to go
to the barn so he can have his milk.

Once warm weather gets here and the
cat door is open all the time, Cloudy Cat will stop sitting on the plant bench.
He will come in and sit on top of me. After all, he is determined to get me out
to that barn.